Biden in Seaside Heights: 'This is a national responsibility'

Nov. 18, 2012

Vice President Joe Biden (right) tours the Seaside Heights on Sunday and witnesses the damage superstorm Sandy caused at the end of Casino Pier. With him here are US Senator Robert Menedez and Lt. Kim Guadagno. / Thomas P. Costello/Staff Photographer

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Associated Press

He is the latest White House official to visit New Jersey after superstorm Sandy.

Biden arrived in the state Sunday morning and was greeted by U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and others. Following a helicopter tour over the state’s storm-damaged coastline, Biden met with about 50 first responders in Seaside Heights and received a briefing on damage caused by the storm. He’ll head to Hoboken later Sunday.

“We have an awful lot of work to do,” he said, adding that he spent many of his summers at the Jersey Shore.

“This is going to be a long process. this is going to be an expensive process,” he said.

Biden spoke also about the importance of the ocean to communities in New Jersey and New York, something he said is hard to understand “if you’re not an easterner” and compared to the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone.

“This is a national responsibility,” the vice president said. “This is not a local responsibility.”

Earlier in the day, an official from Federal Emergency Management Agency official told Biden that Monmouth and Ocean counties were the two most affected counties in the state. He said 45,000 people in Ocean County have applied for FEMA aid and that $87 million has been distributed to individuals in the county to date.

Biden inquired about the damage in Atlantic and Cape May counties. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno told him it was “not nearly as bad.”

President Obama visited storm-wrecked Atlantic City with Gov. Chris Christie, while two Cabinet officers toured a Federal Emergency Management Agency facility in Middletown on Friday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan acknowledged it could take years to rebuild some areas wrecked by the superstorm, which killed more than 100 people in 10 states but hit New Jersey and New York the hardest.